The Batman Has Cast An Unexpected, But Awesome DC Villain

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Batman protects Gotham City from all kinds of criminals, whether they’re of the conventional variety or colorful freaks. Some of the latter folks who Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader will go up against in The Batman include The Riddler and The Penguin, but now word’s come in straight from director Matt Reeves himself that John Turturro has been added as notorious Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone. Here’s what the filmmaker posted:

Matt Reeves has been having fun lately confirming castings for The Batman on his Twitter account, and now we can officially add John Turturro’s name to the mix. Best known for movies like Barton Fink, Quiz Show, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Are Thou?, this will be Turturro’s first time working on a comic book movie, though he has previous franchise experience with his work on the Transformers and Cars movies.

Introduced in 1987’s Batman: Year One storyline, Carmine Falcone is a powerful Mafia leader, nicknamed “The Roman,” who Bruce Wayne tangles with during the early years of his vigilante career. He played an especially prominent role in Batman: The Long Halloween, which saw members of his family and criminal organization being gunned down by a serial killer named Holiday.

Outside of the comics, Carmine Falcone was played by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins and John Doman in Gotham, and he’s also been featured in the animated Batman: Year One movie, Justice League Action and various video games. While not an origin story, The Batman will chronicle the eponymous protagonist as he’s still figuring out the Bat-ropes, so it makes sense to include Carmine Falcone, especially given the movie’s noir tone.

With plot details for The Batman still being kept under wraps, it’s hard to say how specifically Carmine Falcone will factor into the movie, though one could easily imagine Batman tossing with some of Falcone’s goons. However, it’s been rumored that The Batman will be an adaptation of The Long Halloween, and the addition of Falcone lends more credence to that claim. If The Long Halloween is indeed being translated for the big screen, then John Turturro’s Falcone will soon find his organization slowly being dismantled.

As mentioned earlier, Riddler and Penguin were already set to cause trouble in The Batman, with Paul Dano playing the former foe and Colin Farrell in talks to play the latter adversary. The Batman’s cast also includes Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Jayme Lawson as Bella. It’s also been rumored that Harvey Dent, Firefly and Mad Hatter could show up.

The Batman casts its shadow in theaters on June 25, 2021, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on how it’s coming along. In the meantime, find out what’s hitting the silver screen soon with our 2019 release schedule and 2020 release schedule.